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UNU Council Members

Professor Juan Ramón de la Fuente

Chair of Council; President, International Association of Universities; former Rector, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Juan Ramón de la Fuente obtained his M.D. at UNAM’s school of medicine and trained in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA. Before joining UNAM’s School of Medicine he was the founding Head of the Clinical Research Unit of the Mexican Institute of Psychiatry. After becoming a professor at the School of Medicine, he was nominated to be Vice-Chancellor of Science in 1989. He became Dean of the School of Medicine in 1991, and Rector of the university in 1999. In 2003 he was reappointed to a second term. He was President of the Mexican Academy of Sciences in 1995 and of the National Academy of Medicine in 2001. He served as Minister of Health in the government of Mexico from 1994 to 1999.

Prof. de la Fuente has served as Vice President of the World Health Assembly, President of the Board of the United Nations Programme on AIDS, a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Universities, and President of the Net of Macro-Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean. He is a member of the Board of the Cervantes Institute and of the Administrative Council of UNESCO’s International Institute for Higher Education for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has published extensively on health, education, and scientific research, and is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and honours.